ADL takes down extremism database after criticism over entry on Charlie Kirk’s group

The Anti-Defamation League said Tuesday that it took down its Glossary of Extremism and Hate after right-wing US activists assailed the online database for including an entry about Turning Point USA, the conservative advocacy group led by slain influencer Charlie Kirk.

X owner Elon Musk, who has branded the US-based antisemitism watchdog an anti-Christian hate group, and Donald Trump Jr., the US president’s son, were among the prominent figures who criticized the database, which served as a resource for researchers, journalists and others.

Without addressing the criticism directly, the ADL wrote on X on Tuesday that “an increasing number of entries in the Glossary were outdated” and that “a number of entries [were] intentionally misrepresented and misused.”

“Moreover, our experts have continued to develop more comprehensive resources and innovative ways to provide information about antisemitism, extremism and hate,” the group said.

“That’s why we are moving to retire the Glossary effective immediately,” said the group, adding that “this will allow ADL to explore new strategies and creative approaches to deliver our data and present our research more effectively.”

An ADL “backgrounder” on Turning Point USA, which preaches conservative values in US high schools and colleges, is still up. The page notes that the group and its associates have promoted conspiracy theories and that Kirk, who was shot dead during a September 10 event at Utah Valley University, promoted Christian nationalism, which posits that Christianity should inform the policies of the US government.

Disgraceful https://t.co/fiqQrJLPMI

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 29, 2025

“Individuals associated with TPUSA have a history of bigoted statements about the Black community, the LGBTQ community and specifically transgender people, and other minority groups,” according to the still-online webpage.

ADL clashed with Musk earlier this week over another “backgrounder” about the Christian Identity movement, which the webpage describes as a white supremacist ideology that is “antisemitic, racist and unambiguously poisonous” and bears no resemblance to mainstream Christianity.

The page was criticized by right-wing US figures who cast it as an attack on Christian identity, sharing screenshots of the “backgrounder” which were cropped so that the title read only “Christian Identity,” without the word “movement.”

Musk re-posted one such criticism by Republican US Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, and also posted, “The ADL hates Christians, therefore it is is [sic] a hate group,” in response to a pseudonymous account that had claimed the ADL views Christianity as extremist.

ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on X that the suggestion his group is anti-Christian is “offensive and wrong,” and that several ADL employees are Christian.

As recently as January, the ADL defended Musk after he appeared to make a Nazi salute while celebrating the inauguration of his then-ally US President Donald Trump. The ADL described the gesture as merely “awkward,” in a comment that drew backlash within the Jewish community.

The latest clash adds to a series of Musk’s attacks on the ADL. In 2023, he endorsed a post alleging that Jews were pushing “hatred against whites” and accused the ADL of “unjustly” targeting Western societies. He has also threatened to sue the organization for scaring advertisers away from X.

JTA contributed to this report.